When it comes to the West Lake, many people will think of Hangzhou's West Lake, whether it is the famous "Ten Views of the West Lake" or the "Legend of the White Lady" and other popular myths and stories, which have made Hangzhou West Lake a household name, appearing in countless songs and film and television works, and is also a tourist attraction in the minds of many people. But in fact, in Ningbo City, which is located in Zhejiang Province with Hangzhou, there is also a "West Lake", which has a history of thousands of years and the cultural heritage is not lost to the West Lake of Hangzhou.
Ningbo's West Lake area is not large, only about 0.2 square kilometers, compared with the Hangzhou West Lake area of 6.38 square kilometers, can be regarded as a "small witch to see the big witch", and the reason why it can be comparable to Hangzhou West Lake is precisely because of its long history. It was excavated in the Tang Dynasty, about 636 AD, counting so far there are nearly 1400 years of history, when it was the academic center of eastern Zhejiang, but also the place where the literati and inkers rested, in its surrounding land, precipitated with a deep historical background, but also formed a brilliant traditional culture, Ningbo is in the Jiangnan water town, the most famous lake is actually an artificial lake, which shows the historical status of Yue Lake.
Since Ningbo's West Lake is so meaningful, why does it feel "unknown"? If you go to Ningbo City to search for the West Lake now, you may not be able to search, so where is the West Lake in Ningbo? In fact, it is in Haishu District, No. 183 County School Street, not only located in a very central place, but also a 5a scenic spot, but it is now a new name, called Moon Lake, this can be considered to be known. Why is Moon Lake the West Lake of Ningbo? In fact, we have to start from its history, after the Song Dynasty, the south of the lake is called Sun Lake, and the northwest of the lake is the West Lake, also called "Jian Lake", and the legend that the West Lake is shaped like the word "Moon", so it is called "Moon Lake".
Hangzhou's West Lake has "Ten Views of west lake", and Ningbo's West Lake also has similar attractions, called "Moon Lake Ten Continents". Moon Lake Ten Continents originated in the Song Dynasty, Yuan You eight to Shao Shengjian, then Zhizhou Liu Shu, Liu Cheng two adults successively dredged the Moon Lake, "to accumulate soil for the continent, planted pine willows", in addition to the four flowers and trees, but also widely built pavilions, respectively, the east of the lake of Zhuyu, Moon Island and Chrysanthemum Island, the lake of the flower island, Bamboo Island, Liuting and Fangcao Island, the west of the lake of Yanyu, Xueting and FurongZhou, plus the three dikes and seven bridges that reflect each other, the Moon Lake Ten Continents have been formed since then, and the scenery is flourishing for a while.
After the completion of the Ten Continents of Moon Lake, according to the literature, at that time, the Ten Continents "Pavilions and Pavilions followed the situation, the scenery of the four hours was different, and the scholars and women's travels were particularly grand in the spring and summer, flying into the shade, painting the shadows of the boats, and there was no void of the sun", such a fresh and elegant environment was naturally indispensable to the exchanges of literati and inkers, in addition to the four Ming dynasty family families chose to live here, there were many historical celebrities who had been here or as officials, or lecturing, or writing books, or living in seclusion: he Zhizhang, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Anshi, a famous minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Shi Hao, a famous scholar, The great historians of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, such as Vance Tong, all left an indelible mark on the Moon Lake.
These literati and inkers also left countless historical relics in Yuehu, witnessing the history of friendly exchanges between China and Goryeo, the cultural relics of Ningbo's "Maritime Silk Road" and political and commercial exchanges between foreign ports, the ruins of the Goryeo Embassy, the Buddhist residence of The Buddhist Residence, which was founded in the 21st year of the Yuan Dynasty, the official residence of the deputy envoy of the Qing Dynasty's General Secretary and the typical representative of the residence of the official eunuchs in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the Yintaidi Official Residence Museum, the He Secretary's Ancestral Hall commemorating He Zhizhang, and the collection of historical materials about Sun Yat-sen's production of the first Zhongshan suit and the "wool suit" made for Chairman Mao Zedong China's first professional clothing museum with a sample of Premier Zhou Enlai's suit, etc., surrounded this small moon lake, and it is difficult to glimpse the history of the moon lake without half a day.
If you want to know more about Moon Lake, in addition to consulting relevant information, you can also go to the visitor center of Moon Lake, which is also equivalent to a small Moon Lake Museum, which not only has a variety of introductions to Moon Lake, but also can see a lot of calligraphy everyone's works, although they are reproductions, but also before visiting Moon Lake, you can first understand this academic center in eastern Zhejiang.
In addition, the visitor center can also experience rubbings and other ways for ancient people to collect masterpieces, but also a good literary tour, although the Moon Lake is a 5a-level scenic spot, but whether it is this visitor center or the Moon Lake itself and various memorials, basically do not need tickets, even if you do not like history and culture, when a leisure walk in the city park is also good, this is not a conscience in the domestic 5a scenic spot, but now in the special period, many venues need to be reserved in advance. How do you think Ningbo's West Lake compares to Hangzhou's West Lake? Or is there a similar lake in your city? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
Photo/Text Original by tourism maniac Xia XiaXia, unauthorized reproduction is prohibited
About the author: I have traveled to 500+ cities around the world, and have studied at Oxford University in the UK and Waseda University in Japan, as well as international volunteers in Sri Lanka, welcome to continue to pay attention, share with you the world's eating and drinking, like to remember to like comments or share Oh!